Garvyn Araneae

Allow me to introduce you to one of my closest friends. His name is Garvyn Araneae. I met Garvyn earlier this past Spring as he set up shop amidst our lilacs & sprouting maples. What drew me to Garvyn was his industriousness, constantly working on building a safe place for his future family. No matter the weather, Garvyn spun his web feverously. I was up late one night (2 a.m.) and found him still hard at work. I was truly impressed with his persistence—never tiring, never giving up, even when winds and rain destroyed part of his domain he would repair it and continue with further building.

Garvyn waited patiently for the daily deliveries of food. Some days there would be little; other days, none; but then there were those incredible days when so many back-orders arrived, seemingly all at once, that he had to work late into the night to wrap it up for storage and safe-keeping. He knew that he had to be prepared for the arrival of his family; he would need LOTS of fresh food. Well, sorta fresh. So, with a somewhat weary whistle, he would toil into the night, preparing for his beloved.

It was following a thunderstorm, as we both stood in awe at the glory of a rainbow, that Garvyn asked me a question. “I know that, like us, humans work hard hours to make their lives secure. But do they stop, like you and me right now, to wonder at the majesty of God’s rainbows?” I was hard-pressed to answer him. I tried to explain how humans had evolved to a place where work had become all consuming, where consuming had consumed us, to the point that we rarely noticed rainbows anymore, let alone God. Rainbows, creation and God had become fleeting fantasies for us. We no longer gave much time to the deeper magic of life.

Garvyn looked at me sympathetically, sadly. A tear fell to mingle with the rain-drops on his web. I didn’t know if it was his…, or mine.